A Pastor in The Northwest

I was talking with someone recently about the power of God's Word in Scripture and how the Bible, the collection of Hebrew and Christian writings, inspired by God, ALONE gives life.  Even though there are other sacred texts, only the Bible has the powerful, albeit mysterious dimension that no other text contains.  I can personally attest to this. I've read texts like the Quran, the Bhagavat Gita, and even the Book of Mormon, but none captured my heart and soul like the Bible. In the Bible, God's Word, in Messiah Jesus, becomes the very food and drink for humanity. In Messiah Jesus, the Word in flesh, becomes life itself. Mysterious, yes, but true nonetheless!  This is why the writer of Hebrews wrote:   For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. -Hebrews 4:12 ESV Photo by Wesual Click on Unspla...

Some random thoughts on things that have age... Jesus made already aged wine - is this a clue to Creation's age?  Earth & solar system made with all the necessary items for a sustainable universe. The first humans mentioned in Genesis were adults. Might God have created an 'already aged earth'? Let there be light implies light was a reality maybe in place already - stars so far, far away already set in place. What if eternity was built into creation from the start? Continuing the pondering... Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

How the outside smells after a good rain. Playing my guitar with brand new strings. When my wife Jackie reaches for my hand to hold. The first sip of a great Oregon Pinot Noir. When I hear my grandson Elias laugh. The tug of my heart when I see someone care for someone else. Walking through falling cherry blossoms. Letting the river move me while I'm on a paddleboard. Insight from a passage of the Bible I'd never noticed before. The sound of Pacific Ocean waves hitting the sand. Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash

Lately I have been paying attention to the trend of younger people using AI as a companion. The numbers are staggeringly high - over 70%! Teenagers are turning to machines for friendship instead of their peers. Whoa. A whole generation choosing the artificial over the real. As one TED talk I watched pointed out, we would be wise to protect human connection - even when it is messy. Resistance literacy - the act of showing up and being human in a world telling us not to be - is crucial. I think this is where a healthy church family can be an antidote for our modern, AI addicted world. We can walk together in this life alive and vibrant and messy and disappointing, but as a family, loving one another. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. -Romans 12:10 NIV Link to that TED talk by Bryony Cole Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

I was thinking today about the beginning of what we refer to as "The Lord's Prayer" as recorded by Matthew in the famous sermon on the mount.  It begins like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name... To pray like this, then, we acknowledge that we are part of a family and a community of followers and we are God's children.  Not only this, but as His children, we honor and lift up His name and order our lives to bring Him honor. He is sovereign over all things yet loves us like the best of earthly fathers might! We want to be a people devoted to praying to God Our Father; we also want to honor Him by how we live, right? Let us pray to and live for Our Father who is in the heavenly realms, ruling over all, and bring Him honor today!  Photo by Derek Thomson on Unsplash

I read this today and found it helpful in fleshing out more of the family of faith dynamic: “In the family, I learn the complex choreography of love—what it means to give and take and share, to grow from obedience to responsibility, to learn, challenge, rebel, make mistakes, to forgive and be forgiven, to argue and make up, to win without triumph and know when graciously to lose. It’s where we acquire emotional intelligence, that delicate negotiation between the given and the chosen, the things I will and the things resistant to my will.” ​— Jonathan Sacks, English Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, and author (1948–2020), from Celebrating Life: Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places. 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of...